1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Internet facsimile terminal apparatus and a communication method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, e-mail type Internet facsimile terminal apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as IFAX terminal apparatuses), which perform data transmission/reception over the Internet using e-mail, have been in practical use as disclosed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-242326 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,233.
This IFAX terminal apparatus comprises a user interface, which has the same form as G3/G4 facsimile apparatus, which is generally used in an office or home. In other words, the IFAX terminal apparatus is contained in one housing, and is controllable by a panel having a 10-button keypad, one-touch button, and the like, and provides information to users on a relatively small LCD screen.
The IFAX terminal apparatus is shared by a plurality of users, and has a dedicated mail user ID (mail account) similar to the case in which G3/G4 facsimile has one FAX number. Then, a sender transmits e-mail to the dedicated mail user ID when transmitting e-mail to any user.
Similar to the case in which the G3/G4 facsimile prints all contents of received FAX data, the IFAX terminal apparatus prints all contents of received e-mail automatically, and the user can recognize the contents by the printed material.
As mentioned above, the conventional IFAX terminal apparatus receives all e-mails, which have been transmitted to the user, and prints them. There is a possibility that everybody will see them. In contrast, the normal mailer operates on the client that is used by one user or a specific user, who has a login right. In general, the normal mailer instructs the printer to execute printing to print out the content of an e-mail message after receiving an instruction from the user. Therefore, there is no possibility that the e-mail message will be printed regardless of the user""s intention or against the user""s intention. In this way, the IFAX terminal apparatus has concealment, which is much lower than the normal mail.
In consideration of the above-mentioned problem, the present invention has been made, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an Internet facsimile terminal apparatus, which is capable of improving concealment, and a communication method using the same.
Namely, in order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, message information is acquired from a mail server using mail user IDs and passwords of a plurality of users, which shares an Internet facsimile terminal apparatus. Then, acquired message information is outputted and an e-mail message directing to the corresponding user is received from the mail server in accordance with the user""s instruction based on outputted message information, and the mail message is printed.
The reception and printing of the e-mail message are executed in accordance with the user""s intention based on the outputted message information. This prevents occurrence of the problem wherein the e-mail message is received and printed without user""s knowing, and is left on the output trays of the IFAX terminal apparatus, with the result that the content of the e-mail message is known to other users. Then, this makes it possible to improve concealment.